Politis to the point launches its first podcast To the Point with a plain-English tour of world affairs. Host Stefanos Evripidou speaks with international relations expert and YouTuber Prof. James Ker-Lindsay about the major turning points since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the choices ahead.
Ker-Lindsay argues Iraq marked “the beginning of the end” of American dominance, adding that with Donald Trump now in power, it is “really difficult” to make sense of where US power, or even the international system, is heading.
On Ukraine, he warns that allowing borders to shift by force risks a “might-makes-right” precedent, rejecting the idea that international law is merely a Western construct.
If, after 80 years in international relations, you get to keep territory that you seize, then that is going to have a “profound effect”, especially on places like Africa where there around 55 countries whose borders have by and large not been contested in the post-colonial era, he argues.
The discussion spans Brexit, Kosovo’s legacy, the nature of power for small states, and geopolitics in the Eastern Mediterranean. On the Gaza “20-point” peace plan, Ker-Lindsay insists no durable settlement is possible without a credible path to a Palestinian state. His worry is that with all the focus on Gaza, the West Bank will be forgotten and annexed.
Closer to home, he explains why Cyprus is the EU’s natural staging point for activity in the region and how the island sits at a complex nexus of geopolitical trends.
Beyond geopolitics, Ker-Lindsay tackles the toxic pull of social media – urging audiences, including governments and the European Commission, to “get off Twitter”. He also examines algorithmic power, and explores whether AI and the prospect of a Universal Basic Income demand a fundamental rethink of the economic system.